Redemption's Coda Prelude to Darkseid
by Chris St Thomas
Summary: Trust AU. Clark and Chloe finally work through the fear and anger swirling within her in the wake of her battle with Batzarro. What's really going on with Lasciel's coin? Superman is back in Red and Blue!
1. Good Guys Wear Black

Redemption's Coda

Disclaimer – I don't profit and they don't sue.

Author's Note – I've removed the first several chapters of the Darkseid story. Some of that material is reworked here along with some new material as well to tie up loose ends from Betrayal of Trust and Redemption of Trust and properly set the stage for the Darkseid story.

Chapter One "Face the Music"

In a Metropolis manufacturing district, the first predawn grays reached past the downtown spires and across the Delaware River to an anonymous warehouse. Onto it's loading docks, cops and super heroes emerged with questions and confusion rather than arrests and confiscations.

They'd had evidence, surveillance probable cause, and a warrant. But all the police and the heroes had found in the interior expanse of the warehouse was a lone janitor with a mop and a bucket cleaning the floors. Forensics technicians had located not a single hair, fiber or fingerprint. No equipment or interior walls or surfaces of any kind remained in the warehouse: just the steel outer walls and some interior lights. The heavy-duty electrical connections and massive cooling units outside could have been bought anywhere and used for many legitimate purposes as well as criminal purposes. This warehouse was supposed to have been where the Bizarros, imperfect clones of Superman that had been plaguing Metropolis and the rest of America, had been created. But all they found was the hollow steel shell.

Where had the equipment gone? How had it been moved so quickly? Who had moved it? Did someone leak the plans for the raid? Was their evidence in error? Had the Bizarro cloning operation ever really been in this warehouse to begin with? Who was behind the Bizarros? Maybe the bad guys had been tipped off. Maybe they'd just been the lucky ones this time. But the lack of dust indicated that the clean up operation had been completed within minutes before the SCU task force had arrived with the heroes.

The armed and armored officers of the Metropolis PD's Special Crimes Unit, crime scene techs, and heroes stepped out onto the docks expecting silence and shadows. Instead they heard the whup of rotor blades from hovering news helicopters and saw the halogen glare of camera lights from a crowd of reporters assembled beyond the police cordon and the yellow "Do Not Cross" tape. Following the police, came Kal-El in in black trench coat and boots, the Amazing Amazon in gold and red chest plate with black leather jacket and leggings, the Bat in midnight cape and cowl, the Space Cop in green and black flight suit with stylized lantern logo, Martian Manhunter in dark blue cloak and boots, Steel in his own armored commando suit and finally Lady Flash. These heroes followed the SCU, but stayed in the relative gloom where the warehouse's corrugated metal overhang blocked the sweeping search lights of the news choppers.

As the heroes emerged, SCU Captain Maggie Sawyer strode up to the uniformed MPD sergeant who held the crowd of reporters at bay rather like a scuba diver surrounded by sharks. The rest of the SCU officers and techs made their way into their step vans. The reporters, including Gil from the Daily Planet, began shouting questions at them.

None of the cops wanted to face the music regarding what they didn't find in the warehouse any more than the heroes did. Captain Maggie Sawyer stepped forward to speak to the reporters anyway. She removed note cards from an inner pocket of her own tan trench coat and began to give her statement to the press in very loud voice.

Batman fired a grappling hook into the sky to be whisked away by his jet. The Martian Manhunter became insubstantial and sank below the street. Steel's magnetic levitation boots boosted him into the sky. The glow of Green Lantern's Ring expanded to surround him and he leaped into the sky to fly back to Los Angeles. With her back to the crowd of reporters, the Amazon removed a small device from an inner pocket of her jacket and typed her jet's recall code.

Flash, in her black leather jacket with red trim over yellow and red speedsuit, turned toward the Amazon. "I'd love to stay and chat girl to girl but I've got an exam in a few hours at Keystone University in Ohio." Carrie Minh West had filled in for her father, Wally West, on this mission. The senior Flash had a pressing mission along with fellow Titans including Cyborg, Aquaman, Starfire, and Raven. The five Titans were assisting a combined maritime task force of the US Coast Guard and the Atlantean navy with the clean up of the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

"It's okay Carrie," replied Chloe Sullivan, dressed in her minimalist version of the Amazon regalia: black leather jacket over the gold and red bustier and black leather pants, armed only with the golden lasso and the sliver Amazonium bracelets. The Amazon smiled, holding back tears. Something more than just the criminals having already made their escape weighed heavily on her mind. "I understand. I went to college, too." Of course she was only an occasional partner in Kal's heroics back then.

Flash touched the Amazon's arm in a gesture of feminine solidarity and then sped off toward Ohio.

Kal-El, his long black coat flowing in the rotor wash of the hovering news helicopters, adjusted his black Oakley sunglasses and extended an arm to the Amazon. She glared at him darkly and refused. Kal squatted briefly for the cameras placing his black-suited left knee and his left fist on the street. Then, as he poised to leap into the sky in a manner reminiscent of the hero of a Wachowski Brothers sci-fi trilogy, he heard Gil from the Daily Planet shout a question.

Gil called out, "Superman! Why aren't back in the crimson, gold and cerulean blue we've grown accustomed to since your return?"

Kal raised a black-sleeved arm and cupped a hand at his ear as though he were having trouble hearing the reporter's question.

Gil and Cat Grant from GBS News exchanged quizzical looks and then a light went on in Gil's eyes, "Neo, with your recent desert battle with the Bizarro clone of Superman broadcast to the world, do you have any idea when the skys of Metropolis will again be graced by Superman's crimson cape?"

"Heard you that time, Gil." The Son of Krypton winked. "Superman is still wanted on charges by City of Metropolis. You won't see his crimson cape in your skies again until he's cleared of all charges by the Metropolis District Attorney and on the front page of the Daily Planet."

"Would you care to shed any light on what just happened in the warehouse?" Cat Grant asked.

"As Captain Sawyer just told you, the SCU made no arrests and seized no property." Resuming his crouch with knee and fist to the ground, Kal squinted in the direction of the River and gave the reporters a parting remark, "There's about to be a wreck on the Delaware River Bridge." And then soared into the skies.

_Good luck to whoever was about to run off the bridge,_ thought the Amazon. Still facing toward the warehouse, she glanced back over her shoulder to see the crowd of reporters begin to disperse like a school of sharks finding no more scent in the waters. But one of them saw Chloe's tanned cheek as she glanced over her shoulder. And so a new feeding frenzy began. "Trinity! What happened in the warehouse just now?" "How does Neo feel about you being seen with a newspaper reporter at social engagements?" "Trinity, will you and Neo continue to operate with your Super Friends as a team?"

Memories of her life before the shipwreck that had washed her ashore on the Island of the Amazons, Themyscaria, began to flood the Amazon's mind. She remembered that before she'd been called Cassiopeia by the Amazons, she had stood with similar crowds of reporters shouting questions as journalist Chloe Sullivan since... her high school days at the Smallville Torch. Never before had she been the only one on the receiving end of the questions. The Amazon reflected that sometimes the universe seemed to run on irony.

Since she was the only one left, the Amazon knew the reporters had to be asking the questions of her, despite the fact she'd never operated under the moniker Trinity. She hadn't really had a hero callsign since her occasional mission with Green Arrow's first Titans team as "Watchtower" along with Cyborg, Aquaman, Flash and Clark, whom the team had dubbed "Boy Scout."

For the second time in these predawn hours, the Amazon calmed the stormy sea of emotions in her heart, mentally wrapped herself in the regal bearing of an Amazon warrior and turned to face the reporters. She made sure that she turned her golden lasso and a sliver Amazonium bracelets into the camera lights.

The gold Amazon symbol at the top of her chest plate caught the light of the camera nicely, as did her bracelets and golden lasso. Now the tone of the reporters changed. Cries of "Wonder Woman" and "Your Majesty" and "Your Royal Highness" accompanied apologies for disrespect.

Smiling broadly while also squinting into the bright lights of the cameras, Chloe reminded herself of all her Amazon training in both diplomacy and the ways of the warrior before she responded. Now she'd have them eating out of her hand.

Chloe spoke in a clear resonant tone that Donna Troy had called a command voice, "First, I would like to remind you all that in the last century, only two Amazons have carried the title Wonder Woman." The shouting began again. She held up one hand to call for quiet and with other slipped a pair of Oakley for Women out of her jacket and onto her face. That cut the glare to a bearable level. "I am neither." She paused hold her hand up for quite. "Second, my professional life allows me to work with many of the fine reporters and staff at the Daily Planet including Gil back there. And finally, this group of heroes hasn't adopted a team name." _ We've got to have something better than Super Friends.._

"Yes, I'm the one who first called you Trinity!" Gil called back. "When facing away from us, with your lasso in the shadows, and only your black jacket and black pants visible in the cameras' lights, you looked like the heroine of the Matrix movies."

"Thank you, Gil. That's a compliment."

The wine of turbine engines sounded from over head. Everyone except the Amazon looked up but saw nothing. Warm downdrafts blew food wrappers and empty coffee cups around in the street. "I believe that's my ride." The Amazon reached into her jacket to the device. Looking up, she saw her jet become a visible gunmetal gray and leaped up onto the starboard wing. Climbing into the cockpit, she thought to herself, _Trinity...I could live with that callsign_. As she set her course for the Amazon Consulate in Metropolis, Trinity saw the first morning rays of the sunrise.


	2. Passion and Loyalty

A/N – this chapter has new material interspersed with an updated version a chapter removed from Darkseid Cometh

Chapter Two: Feelings and Priorities

Kal-El had chosen to intervene in this particular traffic accident on the Delaware River Bridge because he'd seen a gasoline tanker truck following too closely behind the car that was about to have a blow out. He'd lifted the car off the deck and flown it from the bridge to the nearest service station. The commuters in the car had shouted at him for delaying them and making them miss a meeting, until the auto mechanic had told them they were about twenty yards from losing their right front tire to a really bad blow out.

From there Kal had flown to the Amazon Consulate. He'd hovered next to Chloe's jet, with his long black coat flapping in the jetwash, as she prepared for a vertical landing. Her face looked troubled as she saw him and the jet wavered for a moment. Kal just hung there a few yards away from the now visible aircraft while she righted it.

The Amazon flashed her Kryptonian friend a smile for showing confidence in her ability to handle the jet herself.

Kal smiled back and gave his oldest friend a two fingered salute. He watched as she deftly lowered the airplane through a retractable roof into a hanger. The steel roof closed over her and Kal continued to watch as Chloe signed the aircraft back over to an aircraft mechanic. When he saw that she'd completed the paper work, the Son of Krypton looked out to the horizon and took his phone out of an inner pocket of his trench coat. He called Chloe's phone. It rang a couple of times and went to voice mail. He heard her say, "Meet me on the Terrace in a few minutes. And bring coffee."

-0-

"Kent! Sullivan! My office! Now!" Daily Planet Editor-in-Chief Perry White's voice boomed out of his office into the bullpen. It was early Tuesday morning. At the Daily Planet, this was normally one of Perry's nephew Richard's days to open up and get the paper going. But Richard was still in Smallville bringing in the Batzarro story. Or at least that's what Perry White thought his nephew was doing there. So Perry was getting things going this morning.

"Ah, Chief?" At his desk, Jimmy Olsen keyed up the intercom on his phone. He wasn't sporting a bow tie today. "Chief?"

"What is it Olsen?" The Editor-in-Chief's voice still boomed out of his office door.

Olsen wondered why the Chief didn't pick up his phone or just talk into the speaker. He keyed up his intercom for the Chief's extension. "Mr. White, neither one of them has reported back in from Kansas yet. As far as we know, they're still out there checking on Mr. Kent's mother after the Batzarro incident the other day."

"Tell me again why we've got two reporters an editor and a technician out there covering one story?" The Chief's voice boomed in stereo out of both his office door and Olsen's intercom.

_Since when am I the __Planet's__ conscience or the business expense accounts supervisor,_ Olsen wondered to himself. "Sir, Mr. Kent can't cover a story with his own mother at the center of it, and Ms. Sullivan has been friends with the Kents for years, ever since she and Mr. Kent went to junior high school together. So, neither one of them has even a pretense at objectivity."

"Oh, and my nephew and his fiancee do?" White growled gruffly but his eyes were similing.

"Well, Ms. Lane does." Olsen replied sheepishly. "She doesn't care about anything but bringing in the story. Except for ..."

"Yeah, exactly." The photographer heard a click in his phone. So, the Chief did actually know how to use the intercom. "And for that matter, who's going to cover the Coroner's findings on the 'Superman' autopsy?" Jimmy could hear the quote marks in the Chief's voice.

"The Coroner's Office isn't done yet. They've called in Dr. Klein form Star Labs for a consult." The photographer had done some of his own follow up. While Jimmy Olsen might not ever have the way with written word that he did with a telephoto lens, he did have a nose for a story.

"Alright. Go down there with Thorpe." The Chief barked. "Get a quote. Get something. Even a, 'No Comment,' would be good for us right now."

"Chief, I can go right after I get copies of the photos I took in Luthor's basement during the East Coast Blackout investigation over to the District Attorney's office. The crystal experiments in Luthor's basement could implicate him in both the Blackout and the Crystal Island incident. I meet with them at nine o'clock."

"Alright." The Editor-in-Chief raised his voice again, "Thorpe! Pull Kent's background and field notes from his East Coast Blackout investigation off the server archives and go see the DA with Olsen. If Kent misses that appointment, you can provide testimony from the Planet's archives as representative of the Planet. And when you see the Coroners later, remember to find out if they will go on the record that Klein is there. He may as well be Superman's personal physician."

"Aye, aye, Chief." the reporter and photographer replied in stereo.

"Well get going already! What are you standing around for?"

Thorpe had already pocketed his note pad and his Palm Pilot and Olsen was gather up his camera gear. The team met at the coat rack where they both grabbed their coats and hats.

-0-0-

Chloe Sullivan, or Cassiopeia as her Amazon sisters called her, shivered in the cold morning air. The sun had peeked over the eastern horizon but the temperature still seemed to be dropping and the blustery wind didn't help any either. The traditional Amazon regalia was designed for Mediterranean climes, so the newest Amazon had grabbed long warm coat out of her closet at the Consulate. The coat was from her days in Kansas and might look gauche now but it kept her warm.

Kal lowered himself gently to the Consulate's Terrace and handed a steaming mug of sugar free almond mocha with fat free extra whip to the Amazon. He kept a mug east Indian spiced chai for himself. They stood at table that had tall chairs.

The Amazon nodded her thanks and took a cautious sip. At the moment, the mug was more useful to warm her hands than anything else. Her stomach growled.

Kal spoke, "We could go inside, to the galley, and I could make you an omelet, I'm sure they have eggs in there."

"No actually we can't. This is sovereign Themyscarian soil. Men aren't allowed under pain of death other than on official business. Except the Terrace. Apparently Steel would meet Diana and Batman here from time to time. There's a similar terrace at the Gotham consulate where Donna Troy meets Robin.

"So, exceptions are made for men who can fly?" Kal reflected, smiling.

"Would you stop being so nice?" the Amazon's eyes narrowed. "You're making it impossible to be mad at you." She wanted to be mad, wanted to get the feelings out of her system.

"Why are you mad?" Kal asked openly.

"Because you weren't fraking there when I was fighting that Bizarro on Route 9 in Kansas near your mom's farm!" Cassiopeia spoke slowly and darkly.

"Chloe, I was off world slowing an asteroid," the Son of Krypton explained calmly.

"An asteroid that's going to hit earth in what – twenty years?" the Amazon scoffed.

Kal looked up for a moment, working some calculations in his head, "Maybe twenty months, now."

"Yeah, go ahead and defend yourself, you weasel." She tossed her coffee in his face.

His cheek blistered for an instant before the stored sunlight in Kal's cells healed it. Chloe couldn't see it but Kal could feel it. It didn't exactly tickle.

"I could have been killed," she spoke softly with menace in her tone, "dead for real this time! That thing, that Batzarro, rammed a metal sign post through my chest! And where were you? "

"You know that even I can't be in two places at onece that far apart -"

"This is not the part where you answer!" The blonde warrior tapped the palm of her hand on the table. "Can you just let me feel my fear and anger for five minutes?" An element of pleading entered Chloe's tone as she stood. She looked into Kal-El's eyes and saw no understanding there, only mild confusion. Tears began to well up in her eyes and the Amazon turned away from the Son of Krypton. She pointed emphatically up and away from the Consulate, out toward the New Troy Island Sound and stalked off in silence. Kal gathered up the crockery mugs his mother had made and flew back to his apartment.

-0-0-0-

In his glass walled office, Perry White glanced up through the outside windows at the rays of the rising sun. He clicked his desk phone with one finger while he held the receiver in the other hand. Two taps speed dialed Richard's cell phone. It was only an hour earlier in Kansas, but on a farm people rise early. Especially, when the farmhouse has been damaged and needs repair. Perry White might not let on to the world what he had figured out, but he was nobody's fool. Least of all Clark Kent's. Or Superman's.

White supposed he'd suspected for years, but on the day a few weeks ago when he'd seen Superman's face close up in the high definition monitor in his office, something had clicked in the Editor's mind. It had been Kent's second day back on the job. Lois had been covering the maiden voyage of NASA's next generation Space Shuttle, code named Genesis from inside the Boeing 777 that was helping it launch.

Disaster had struck in the form a black out that started in Metropolis and ran all the way down the East Coast to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, even affecting the Genesis, and it's F-22 chase planes. The mounting brackets that clamped the space vehicle onto the jumbo jet had failed to release. The abort sequence had also failed and when the Genesis's main engines had ignited, it had dragged the 777 up into the stratosphere with it.

Superman, absent for the previous six and a half years, had chosen that moment to re-appear, to save an air craft with Lois Lane in it. Granted this was a larger aircraft than the helicopter he'd saved her in the first time almost a decade earlier, and this save was quite a bit more complicated than merely catching a falling girl and a falling helicopter. But the wordsmith in Perry White appreciated the symmetry.

After setting the U. S. Air Force jumbo jet down in the middle of a South Florida baseball stadium, Superman had stood there in the middle of the baseball diamond near the pitcher's mound and accepted the crowd's ovation. He'd allowed the television cameras that had been covering just another Major League baseball game, to zoom in on him and broadcast a close up of his face around the world. And then he'd lifted up into the sky and flown away.

Looking into the Man of Steel's eyes through the television monitor... in that moment something had come together in Perry White's mind. He realized that Superman had the same eyes as someone he'd shaken hand's with just that morning: Clark Kent. And then a hundred-odd details had come together for Perry. Clark would disappear for hours or days at a time and then turn up with a Superman exclusive. Superman had disappeared soon after Kent had gone on sabbatical and then reappeared within hours of Kent being back on the job. Kent always stood up for Superman. Above all, the reporter seemed uncannily sure of what the Man of Steel thought or felt about a variety of issues most especially, Truth, Justice and Lex Luthor.

The man had these incredible powers: faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, he could fly! But how did he choose to make his living? With brains and heart, with words written on a page and ideas communicated through them. He made his living everyday showing his humanity even when other reporters grew jaded and cynical, or became political ideologues trying to use the news to promote the political agendas to which they subscribed.

Clark Kent had been coach-able in his time as a cub reporter. Over the years, he'd won an modest array of awards for the clarity, consistency and passion of his writing. He had chosen to compete with humans in arena in which his superpowers wouldn't help him. And he hid behind a pair of glasses.

Lois had drawn a hat and glasses with a coat and tie over a photo of the Man of Steel a few days before the Kryptonian had disappeared on his voyage back to his homeworld. She'd shown it to himself and Jimmy and half the staff and no one had scene it. But now it all made sense. The man hid in plain sight and competed with humans not in sports, or science (at which his Kryptonian birth culture excelled) but in the only fair playing arena he had: words and ideas. This earned White's respect.

Surely if anything were Page One above the fold news, it was this: Superman has a secret identity. Most Editors would make selling papers the highest priority. But the more Perry thought it over the higher helping Clark keep his secret moved on White's scale of priorities.

These recent incidents in Metropolis with the burned police officers, the dead young mother as well as the ones in Smallville and at the Army base in upstate New York did have had the marks of Superman's powers. But White felt confident in his own assessment of Kent's character. In cape and boots or suit and tie, the guy wouldn't hurt a flea, or a felon much less police officers, innocent by-standers and soldiers.

All of this passed through the Editor-in-Chief's mind in the time it took the phone call to connect and Richard to answer and say, "Hello? Hello! Uncle Perry are you there?"

-0-0-0-0-

The Son of Krypton consulted both the Kal and Clark appointment books. Kent had a nine o'clock deposition at the Criminal Courts Building with an Assistant District Attorney regarding his investigation into the East Coast power outage a few weeks before and Lex Luthor's role in it. From his closet he picked up his fedora and one of his brown suits and hung them both in the pocket of his trench coat along with his laptop and his brief case. He'd need to be at the DA's office soon.

With so much of the evidence of Luthor's involvement in the crystal continent scheme sunken at the bottom of the Atlantic along with the yacht, only the what the Daily Planet had uncovered at the manor house could tie Lex to the power outage. Of course the power outage had ground commerce to a halt, disrupted the Pentagon and scuttled the maiden voyage of the Space Agency's Genesis Orbiter. Those could all be serious felonies.

-0-0-0-0-0-

"Yes, Richard. I'm here," the Editor-in-Chief shifted the phone to his shoulder and adjusted his blinds. "Are Kent and Sullivan still there? No, no it's okay you don't have to get them. Is Kent's mother okay? Was she hurt?

The reply came across the long distance line, "Uncle Perry what are you talking about? Of course Mrs. Kent is fine and so is Jason. We're all a-okay out here."

Richard sounded like he was hiding something. Perry had been almost a surrogate father to his nephew from the time the lad's family had moved back Stateside from Okinawa. He could tell when Richard was covering something up. "Well, take your time out there. The Planet will still turn without you."

"Yeah, about that, Uncle Perry, we'll have to talk tomorrow when Lois and Jason and I get back." Richard hadn't liked breaking it to Jason that he was going back into the Air Force. He'd expected a fight from Lois but she'd been supportive.

"What is it, Richard? You're too young for prostate problems. You can't have gotten an offer from the competition because we have none."

"Don't worry Uncle Perry. I'll tell you tomorrow when we're back." Richard laid back down with Lois and tried to go back to sleep. Kent and Sullivan had left the Smallville Motor Court a couple of hours before to return to Metropolis on a tip about the Batzarro/ Bizarro story from an informant in Gotham of all places. But Richard wasn't going to let on to his uncle that Clark had told him he was Superman.

**-0-0-**

The deposition wrapped around lunch, and Clark said goodbye to Ron Thorpe and Jimmy Olsen. Thorpe and Olsen caught the train to the Coroner's Office while Clark headed back to the Planet. He needed some time to think and the train usually gave it to him. His conversation with Chloe at dawn on the Terrace at the Amazon consulate had him befuddled and he needed some time to work thru it. At speed, he mentally reviewed his father's teachings.

Jor-El had always been long on universal moral philosophy and Kryptonian hard sciences like singularity physics and tensor calculus, but rather short on the touchy-feel-y stuff like social psychology and relationship dynamics. Finding nothing useful, Clark switched mental tracks to his mom and dad.

How many times had his mom been worried about the harvest, the flocks, the herds and the debts? Clark couldn't count. How many times had his dad justified himself when his mom had expressed her concerns? None, at least none since Clark had started paying attention when he was a school age child. How had Jonathan and Martha always handled these kinds of discussions...?

Jonathan had listened calmly knowing that Martha's concerns were about her feelings not his performance. . He'd confirmed that he was okay with her feelings and that he loved her. Period. He never stood for any swinging fists. He'd just walk away and ignore her if she did that. Mom had learned to own her feelings and talk about what she felt, rather than accusing Dad of anything. Dad had been supportive and loving. He'd reassured her of his commitment to her, to Clark, their family.

Could that be what was going on here with Chloe? She was no stranger to his heroics. She'd been his sidekick, make that partner in crime-fighting and meteor freak wrangling before Batman had a Robin or Wonder Woman had a Wonder-girl. She knew the risks. She'd even been near death a couple of times herself, before Rayner had given her the Lantern Corps reserve charge. Was she feeling hurt by Clark's absence because she loved him and needed him to love her? He mentally reviewed his relationship with Chloe from before he left to Krypton backwards.

First Clark thought of her marriage to Olsen's cousin in her early days at the Planet. Poor kid had been killed less than a year later. Then he thought of hundreds of times before Olsen's cousin and since when Chloe had looked at him with wonder and affection and love and sadness in her eyes. And he'd never seen her as anything more than his oldest and most reliable friend, usually because he'd been mooning over Lana or Lois.

Maybe Jor-El had been right at the Fortress when they'd given Jason his naming ceremony: Maybe mortal Chloe who loved Clark Kent before he'd even been fast or strong or able to leap tall buildings... maybe tender Chloe who'd accepted his alien heritage as just another wonderful quality that made CK who he was... maybe Amazon Chloe who still loved Clark and wanted to fight injustice along side Kal-El of Krypton whether he wore Superman's red cape or Neo's black coat... Maybe Chloe Cassiopeia Sullivan- or what was it Gil had called her this morning? Duh, Trinity! -maybe she could truly be his SCRRREEEECCCHHH! The subway train stopped and broke his train of thought, "Stop 26, Daily Planet Building and LuthorCorp Plaza."


	3. Something wicked bound for Earth

Disclaimer – No profit, no law suits.

A/N – This chapter is a mixture of material written in early 2011 and material removed from the first few chapters of an earlier version of 'Darkseid Cometh'

Chapter 3: Minor Revelations and Major Portents

After throwing the coffee in Kal's face at dawn on Tuesday morning, Chloe turned her back on him. Her eyes welled up as she stalked across the Terrace and re-entered the Amazon Consulate's main hall. She walked numbly back to her quarters. _How many times is he going to wound my heart like that? Does he have no feelings for me at all? _Inside her room, the newest Amazon stepped over to her mirror and looked at her face. Her hair wasn't plastered with sweat and grime the way it usually was at the end of a Mission. But then they hadn't found anything on the raid and there had been no one to fight this time. She looked into her eyes and saw a darkness there she hadn't seen in a very long time. It seemed to be growing and hardening.

A sound of voices coming down the corridor outside her door distracted her. Cassiopeia thought she recognized them from the Antiquities Section of the Consulate. She heard a knock as the voices passed her door and continued down toward the other end.

Turning from the mirror, Chloe walked around her bed and opened the door. No one was there, but sitting on a the occasional table outside was small, yet ornate box. It clearly looked like it belonged to the Antiquities Section. She picked it up and started after them. Recognizing two of them she called out, "Hey! Phillipa! Lonika! Did either of you set this box next to my door?" Cassiopeia stopped, suddenly sure it was for her, but unsure why she was now so certain. She felt a mixture of longing and foreboding.

The Amazons at the far end of the corridor turned and looked back at Cassiopeia and the box, then at each other. The brunette turned away from the blonde and the one with raven locks. "It's okay." she said. "Just don't be long."

Phillipa and Lonika walked back toward Cassiopeia's quarters to consider the box more carefully. The two Amazons examined the box, admiring its craftsmanship. Lonika replied first and then Phillipa echoed her, "No." They turned away and followed after Nike, quickening their steps.

Chloe took it into her room and set it next to her jewelry case. She realized that the ornate carvings on the sides and the top were glyphs in an ancient language called Enochian. Chloe had never learned this language in her Amazon studies. She realized that it was the language of the Angels. Some of the glyphs seemed to be warnings. Some seemed to be promises.

The newest Amazon shuddered as she opened the lid of the box. Inside it was a medium sized ancient coin sitting on a wooden stand. Chloe picked up the stand and used it to hold the coin up to the morning light. One side of the coin was scorched. The other had another Enochian glyph carved over the face of Hercules. The glyph was the symbol for Lasciel. Chloe didn't know anything else yet. And she felt puzzled and intrigued and she wanted to take the coin and hide it in her cleavage, what little she had.

Instead Cassiopeia took a kerchief from her dresser and used it to remove the coin from the stand and place it her jewelry case. She locked the case and placed the stand back in the box. Closing the box, she carried it to her closet, put it on the upper most shelf. Then she put the jewelry case next to it and closed the closet. She would have time for Lasciel's coin later; she could face the day after a couple hours' sleep.

-0-

Not far from Los Angeles, in Santa Monica, Kyle Rayner stared at a blank canvass. Yes, he felt refreshed after a few hours rest following the mission. No, he didn't have artist's block. It was just such a relief to be standing in his studio. In front of a canvass. With all his art supplies. And have time to paint. Setting the Ring on a side table, the artist picked up his brushes and began one of his two favorite activities: he painted. The other favorite favorite was flying jets.

He painted for hours.

-0-0-

_Ting! _The elevator chime banished the echo of screeching subway brakes from Clark Kent's mind as it announced his arrival at the Daily Planet's main bullpen. This was where the reporters of City Desk, the National Desk, and the Financial Desk had their assigned workstations alongside the offices of the Deputy Editor and the Editor-in-Chief. Once this bullpen had housed just the City Desk and the Editorial Offices. That was before the ascent of internet news and the inevitable cutbacks in the print media. With wifi enabled laptop computers and 3G smartphones, most reporters didn't need the bullpen. They could work from anywhere.

Clark felt fortunate to have his job. He checked his tie, straightened his glasses and slouched slightly as he picked up his satchel and overcoat to step out of the elevator.

Clark stepped into the bullpen. _Just a quick check in with the Chief, _the reporter told himself. Then he could be off to find Chloe and get back to Smallville. He still had one final repair to finish at his mom's farm.

"Kent! My office, now!" Editor-in-Chief Perry White bellowed from inside his glass-walled office.

Kent hurriedly set his satchel and overcoat in the chair at his cubicle as he passed by on his way to the Chief's office. Seeing thru the closed blinds that White had turned toward the humidor where he kept his cigars, Clark knew he had a moment, but he still hurried as a sign of respect. Yet he did not bobble his satchel or his coat. Gone was the stumbling, stuttering milquetoast. Since his cover for the absence during his trip to Krypton had been a walkabout traveling the continents, he could show that he'd gown some confidence.

Easing through the Chief's glass door, the reporter reached into his suit coat for a pen and note pad. But the dark glare from the blonde at the Chief's personal conference table froze Kent's hand in his inside pocket. Clark paused in the doorway, momentarily frozen in his friend's icy glare._ Check off finding Chloe from the to-do list. _

_Keep moving, Clark, confidence and all that. "_Afternoon, Mr White." Clark announced himself. "Chloe." He nodded curtly to his friend.

White still had his back turned toward the door of his office and appeared fairly relaxed as he reached under his humidor and slid a door to the side, "Come in and close the door." The older man pulled out some photos and what looked like a rolled up nautical chart. Then his back straightened as a certain resolve hardened in his mind, "Don't sit down just yet."

As the Chief spun in his executive chair, Chloe cleared her face. White set the charts and photos down on his desk and stood. He turned to Chloe. "Sullivan, would you excuse us for a moment?"

Clark sensed that something more than just a story assignment was about to happen here and he knew that he needed to demonstrate his trust and confidence in his friend. "It's okay, Mr. White. Anything you would say to me, you can say to Chloe."

White's gaze moved back and forth between the man and woman before him. He'd known them both very well years before. So much had changed since then in the world and in the lives of the two reporters before him. White saw tension and confidence play across Kent's features, while Sullivan appeared to be composing herself; he saw them searching each other's eyes. The right corner of her mouth turned up at the same time a tear formed in each eye. White had seen that look of happy and sad at the same time years before. _In for a penny, in for a pound._

White scooped the photos and charts back up from his desk and laid them out across the table. The photos all showed the same constellation. Since some of them appeared to distort one of the center stars, they appeared to have been taken from different telescopes. The charts depicted sine waves and scatter plots. Clark and Chloe studied the photographs of the stars and the charts.

Chloe's face screwed up in a look that said 'ick, gross' as she scanned the printouts and picked up the photographs. She held one of them up to Clark and the Chief, "I don't recognize this constellation."

"It's the Southern Cross, from the Southern Hemisphere." Kent and White spoke together.

Kent picked up the chart-sized printouts and studied them for a few moments.

"Those are from a radio telescope array in Australia." White explained. "The astronomers can't make heads or tails of it, but if you look..." he tried to point out something in the charts.

Clark set the charts back down on the conference table and rearranged them under the lights. He took off his glasses, put them in an inner pocket of his coat, and leaned over to study the charts and photos more carefully.

Chloe's eyes grew wide as she saw Clark run his fingers through his hair, carelessly untucking the signature spit curl. "Mr White," she began hoping he would turn and look at her and away from Kal's trademark spit curl, "why have you brought these to us? Don't we have a science guy at the Features Desk and a NASA guy who covers the Space Centers?"

"Yes." the Chief replied, glancing up briefly at Chloe but remaining transfixed by a Clark who clearly knew exactly what his was looking at and who could even search among the graphs, charts and photos for particular details.

Chloe continued in an effort to distract the Chief, "I could take the photos to the Amazons. We have some talented astronomers who've been studying the skies for thousands of years. Literally. Perhaps, they could tell us-"

White gestured for quite, "Sure, do that," He leaned over and spoke to Chloe in hushed tones, "but I think Kal here knows more than he wants to tell us right now."

Clark tucked his cowlick back with a careful brush of his fingers and put his glasses back on. He continued to look at the papers although his examination was clearly concluded. "Of course the Australians and Americans can't figure it out, Mr. White, this kind of effect hasn't been discovered..." _on Earth yet. It's a tachyon distortion caused by particles that travel faster than light and backward in time._" He frowned for a moment. "Maybe Green Lantern..." he trailed off, apparently lost in thought. Though whether he was thinking about the charts or how to talk his way out of White's office with his alter ego's identity in tact wasn't clear.

"Son, are you saying the distortion in the photos of the Southern Cross isn't just lens imperfections from the telescope?" White asked. "How could you possibly know that?"

_How indeed... _Kent adjusted his tie, "Well, you see, Mr White, the telescope at Mount Stromlo Observatory in Canberra..."

Perry rested on the top of the conference table. His eyes narrowed. "I haven't told you which observatory took the photos. How do you know it was Mt. Stromlo?"

Chloe just looked on, speachless, completely aghast.

"Look we all know that Cassiopeia, here_,_ became an Amazon while she was gone. But you didn't _become_ anything while you were gone, did you?" The senior news man paused for a long moment and studied Clark's face. He saw his conclusions from earlier in the morning confirmed.

Clark started to answer, but the Chief had turned to Chloe whose face was an open book to.

"You already know," he said to simply to Chloe.

Clark, Chloe and Perry White all looked at each other. No one breathed or moved. The door to the office opened and Lindsey, the Chief's assistant looked in. "Mr. White, I've got ..." and then she trailed off. "It'll keep."

"Yes, let us finish this." White almost smiled and Lindsey retreated, closing the door firmly.

"My God." White moved to the chair at the head of his conference table. "Does Lois know? Does Richard?"

"What's going on here?" asked Chloe. They all continued searching each other's faces.

The Chief had made his living for decades not just by arranging words cleverly in a column of newsprint but also by searching the faces and tones of voice of sources and reporters to determine which words to put on the page and which to leave out. "She does and so does he, but you didn't tell me..." Wheels were spinning fast in the Chief's mind. A light turned on, in the his eyes, "That's why Richard took Jason to Kansas before the worst of the Bizarro incidents. He hoped the lad would be safe at your mother's farm."

Clark searched his mind for the cover stories he used to use. He'd been back for less than two months and the whole trip to and from Krypton had taken about five months or so ship time traveling so close to light speed. All of those stories should still be ready in his mind. But none of them included Jason or Lois. Clark started to speak, but Perry continued.

"No wonder Jason has such piercing blue eyes. No one in my family, that is to say Richard's family, or Lois's has eyes like that. They're yours, Kal. Jason has your eyes."

"Wait," said Chloe, "what did you just call Clark?"

"I called him by his name, didn't I?" replied the Chief.

"Yes, Mr White, it's all true. Lois and I had an affair while we were doing that story at Niagara Falls, and..." _ Maybe I can get out of this just admitting to being Jason's father._

"And you didn't know," White continued. "For a guy who can hear the clouds scrape together and ...see a fly on the back of a cow in his mother's cow pasture from beyond the orbit of the moon...you can be pretty dense sometimes. "

"That's pretty much what Br-" Clark reminded himself not to stutter anymore, "...what Batman said when I told him."

"So, you're not denying it?" White leaned forward.

"No, Mr. White. I'm Superman. Jason is my son. Lois and Richard and Jason all know. So does my Mom. So does Chloe. She's known longer than anyone else, besides my mom. That I'm Superman, anyway."

"And you two are..." The gruff editor made a vague gesture that suggested they were seeing each other.

Chloe's expression closed up. "No, Mr White, we're not."

White smiled. "Okay. If you say so." Then he turned to grab the photos and the chart from his desk. He signed. "I'm glad we got all of that out on the table."

"One more thing, Mr. White." Clark chose his words, tone and expression carefully. He wanted to instill confidence, not fear. "Now that you know, are you going to print this?"

"No Kal, I'm not." the Chief leaned on the edge of his table. "I'll still call you Kent in front of the staff. But maybe I can help with the cover stories for Jason; for his powers anyway. Most of them will figure out that Kent is his father, but we don't everyone putting together the whole Superman & Son thing. White paused and removed a cigar from his vest pocket. He savored it's smell for a moment.

Still holding the cigar in his hand, he continued, "The world changed while you were gone. Madmen now fly airplanes into buildings, release nerve gas in subways and try to blow up carbombs in Times Square. The same madmen who twist religion to justify killing innocents in the Middle East and Western cities, also hate journalism, and anything else that might expose their true face. We're a target here anyway. But I wouldn't paint a target on all your friends and relatives. I'd suggest you consider which of them deserve to know who you are, though." White put the cigar away.

The he gathered up the papers from his conference table. "I guess, it's a good thing I didn't give this particular astronomy story to Carl over at the Features desk."

Clark still needed to get to Smallville and replace his mother's upstairs window. _It was mighty swell of Richard, Lois, Chloe_, _mom and Mr Hubbard to all pitch in with watching Jason and fixing up the damage from the Batzarro incident, but I said I would take care of that upstairs window, and … _"Thank you for putting us on this one Chief."

Chloe held up her hands distancing herself from the assignment. "Hold on just a moment there, CK. I'm tech support around here. Mr. Wayne brought me in for that computer issue before the Bizarro Incidents."

"Chloe, I need you with me on this one." Clark's eyes spoke volumes, but Chloe needed to hear words.

"I can't keep doing this." A single tear meandered down Chloe's cheek and she looked at the Chief's office door.

"I know what you mean, Chloe."

"Oh, nonsense, Sullivan." White smiled and extended an arm, offering a half hug. "You've been family here at the Planet since I was Mediterranean Bureau Chief covering my nephew flying jets in the Air Force. You can have you old desk back. In the basement."

She answered, "Richard already gave me that desk. If you're making me a reporter again, you'll have to do better than that."

"Of course you can have desk in the bullpen." White gave a thin small smile.

"Chloe, can we talk about this on the way to my mom's farm?" Clark asked as he moved toward the door. "I still have to fix the second floor hallway window."

-0-0-0-

On Tuesday afternoon, while some journalists, like Clark Kent and Chloe Sullivan, had tried to sort their present relationship and some photographers, like Kyle Rayner, had contemplated their wide open futures with women they loved... others, namely Ron Thorpe and Jimmy Olsen had been earning their keep. By the end of the day Tuesday, the Coroners' Office had finished its work with the aid of Dr Klein and had issued a revelation of a statement. It was long, technical and complicated by a lot of biology and physiology. The statement boiled down to this: the body in the morgue had possessed the powers of Superman when it had been alive, but it was a clone and not by any means the genuine article. Genetic markers had indicated that it had been one of several clones, probably not more than twelve.

Jimmy had then scoured the Internet to find a photo of Superman in Judea and Samaria, more commonly known as the West Bank of the River Jordan, that was time stamped in the Cingular Wireless phone grid, to the second, for the same moment the woman had died spectacularly in blue arms while crossing the street Metropolis. Several matching photos also from the Cingular Wireless grid, showed the death of the poor young mother in blue arms followed by a red cape, on a busy street in downtown Metropolis. All had the same time stamp.

Ron followed up a suggestion from (who else?) Clark and discovered that NASA had asked The Man of Steel to handle a Mission for them offworld. NASA's transponder placed the Son of Krypton half a million kilometers away from Earth during the time that the Metropolis Police Officers had been burned by heat vision all the way through incident with the 10th Mountain Division. The transponder tracked Superman the whole time he was offworld, right up until a superpowered man dressed like the movie hero Neo had arrived at Ft. Drum to take on the Bizarro Impostor clone.

Thorpe and Olsen high-fived. This was page one above the fold and the headline would read Superman Innocent.

-0-0-0-

Rayner didn't even realize it when the horizon flared red as the sun began to set. He noticed that he was squinting and started to go turn the lights on. Instead, he decided to walk downstairs to Radu's coffeehouse. There he would meet up with Alexandra and watch from the patio with a mug of the Radu's cappuccino as the western sky blazed through the reds and golds to indigo and violet.

Starbucks eat your heart out.

As the last rays of violet faded to black, Kyle and Alexandra walked a few blocks to the beach and sauntered through the edges of the surf, holding hands, chatting and carrying their shoes. They meandered back to her place where they grilled fresh Alaskan salmon and asparagus on her balcony.

The moon rose.

Kyle and Alexandra picked out Orion and other stars and constellations as they finished dinner and washed the dishes. Painting could wait.

Alexandra was a growing passion. Kyle loved her. Painting and flying jets were activities that had defined his life for over a decade. But the last couple of years with Alexandra were changing his perspective. The warrior-artist wondered how adding another part-time job as a Green Lantern to his plate -already nearly full with the commercial art and photography he did for the Planet, the Air Force Reserve and his painting- would affect his and Alexandra's plans for the future.

Kyle and Alex had been visiting artisans (not jewelry stores) aw well as looking at second hand baby furniture. No one had mentioned the words Marriage or Wedding. Yet. He would probably, no definitely, use some of the money from his recent Gallery show and sale to buy an engagement ring.

-0-0-0-

_SUPERMAN INNOCENT!_ Batman read tomorrow's headline in one of the monitors behind the main console of The Computer which was naturally located in The Cave. It was late. Or early. _Must be nice to have a major news organization to carry your water for you, Clark. Some people say that your father was the contingency planner for Krypton. I've heard you tell the story yourself of how he had a plan to build giant space arcs and carry all of Krypton's population to other worlds in addition to Earth, places like Argo and Daxam and Rann. But you, Clark you can't see past the glasses on the end of your nose. You leave your genetic samples lying around in hospitals where any monomaniacal, evil scientist could slip in steal them to start making clones. Hell, Clark, Heinz Doofenschmirtz could have stolen you blood sample from Metropolis Mercy Hospital. Then you go traipsing off to ...what does it say here? You went to slow down a comet that's due to hit earth years from now, so that it would fall into the sun. Better get the orbit right, and not have it sling shot around and crack the Moon in half..._

While The Computer was located in one of the caverns within The Cave it was not built into the rock and dirt wall of the cavern as the graphic novelists and Hollywood directors imagined. The Caped Crusader had constructed a sealed room within the cavern, with air lock style doors to keep out the rodents and insects that naturally made their homes in The Cave. The sealed room also had positive pressure to keep out the dust. It wouldn't do to have rats or bats chewing on the wires of the latest Cray supercomputer, or dust fouling its keyboards and displays.

He had removed his cape, cowl and gauntlets. Again contrary to the depictions in the popular media, Batman worked in relative comfort in his Computer Room as well as in his Lab. Besides it wouldn't do to have his cape or gauntlets knock over a testing device in the Lab and keying instructions into the Computer with his gauntlets on was...difficult at best. He could do it. But it slowed him down.

The Dark Knight's mind wandered back to his recent team operation with out his own personally trained team. It had gone remarkably well. The Space Cop, the Martian, Steel and 'America's Sweethearts' had all arrived right on schedule. They had breached the facility cleanly, with Metropolis PD and the Special Crimes Unit providing a cordon and 4th Amendment cover.

The only problem was they had been late.

All of them.

The whole facility had been stripped back to the studs in the walls and the girders in the ceiling. Some transformers outside and exterior air handling units provided no decisive clues. They could have been used in anything from infections disease research to hi-tech clean room manufacturing. The whole thing reeked of the Luthors.

Like father like son. Although to be fair, the old man seemed to have cleaned up his act in recent years. But Lex more than made up for it with maniacal schemes from his attempted thermo-nuclear redevelopment of the West Coast, to hiring the Joker and Metallo and supplying them with Kryptonite, to co-operation with the Kryptonian fiends who escaped the Phantom Zone, to his more recent attempt to grow a new continent in the North Atlantic from the Fortress's crystals. One Hundred Twenty Miles off shore from Metropolis. Far enough from Gotham that shock waves dissipated.

The whole recent mess with the Bizarros smelled of another of Luthor's schemes to do in the Man of Steel. Though this time by going after Clark's credibility, Luthor was demonstrating a degree of subtelty that would have made Lionel proud.

Batman dragged his mind back into the present. His news media combing bot had found reports on a new type of terrorism. He couldn't let this "Superman Innocent" headline distract himself. This new variation on an old type type of terrorism, this he could sink his teeth into. In a crowded outdoor bazaars in Baghdad, Iraq and Djakaarta, Indonesia, attackers had simply called out words at the top of their lungs and everyone within hearing distance had dropped dead.

The Caped Crusader was watching an amateur video taken with digital video camera by deaf man vacationing with his deaf wife in Indonesia. The survivor had been interviewed on Sky, CNN and Fox News. The interviews had caught the bot's attention. Batman had searched out the raw video, finding it in a server at Sky's Djakaarta bureau.

The video panned the market, recording the shopkeepers as they showed off their wares. It showed some buyers and sellers haggling over items' prices. Then it panned past a man walking alone through the bazaar. He moved slowly. People flowed past him. The video paned on to another haggler who gestured expansively. Then in panned back to the slow moving man who had now stopped in the very center of the bazaar. The man checked his watch and then the sun. He turned to face in a particular direction, apparently west.

The man spoke with his hands close to his chest and his lips barely moving. Batman zoomed the video in to read his lips."Allah hu akbar." Then the man spread his arms to reveal nothing under his lose outer tunic. He called the prayer out loudly the second time because he clearly spoke from his diaphragm and his lips opened much wider. The speaker removed a hand sized bound note book from and inner pocket and read from it continuing to speak loudly but his lips formed no discernible words.

When he finished his 10 second monologue, the speaker fell to the ground where he stood. Then those around him feel as well. The video followed up the bazaar as everyone fell over. Then the camera fell to the ground and panned toward the opposite end of the bazaar.

Everyone had fallen over down there as well.

The camera stayed at ground level until the emergency workers arrived. Judging from the way the video moved the man sat up and let the medic check him. The video then showed many of those on the ground with their arms crossed. The medics and police continued checking the rest of the shopkeepers and patrons and crossing arms on their chests. The screen faded to black.

Batman ran the death scene back and forth a few times and concluded that whatever words the speaker had called out had caused himself and everyone around him to drop dead. The Dark Knight Detective deduced that they had fallen over as soon as their minds had processed what the man had said. _Strike monologue, _Batman thought, _that was some kind of incantation._

_I'm going to need a consultant on this one. Not Zatanna either. She was good, but she hadn't faced down insidious, destructive Evil like this. I'm going to need a Knight of the Cross on this one, or... _He reached for the phone, dialing Commissioner Gordon for a name. Gordon sometimes told stories of freaky cases his friend Murphy had worked during the Chicago years. Who was that consultant she called in? Tristian? Bern? Munich? He would ask Gordon if he ever answered his phone.


	4. Lightning Crashes

A/N: Last chapter of 'Redemption's Coda.' Next, Look for upgrades to 'Darkseid Cometh.'

"I don't get it," remarked Kal-El, subvocalizing into his throat-mic. "The Consulate let you have the plane for the afternoon, but no fuel?" Kal hoped that the throat-mic would do what Bruce had said it would. The mic should send his voice by wireless link so that Chloe could hear him over the flapping sound of his long black trench coat. He planned to switch back to his usual crimson cape and blue uniform tomorrow or the next day. Kal would appear again as Superman after the Daily Planet published Ron Thorpe and Jimmy Olson's story about the Bizarros and the Metropolis District Attorney dropped the related charges pending against Superman.

"Oh, the tanks are full of fuel," Chloe replied as she adjusted the flaps "It's just that the Consul has only authorized me to use about fifteen to twenty minutes' worth of it. This configurable, aircraft is a fine example of Themyscarian engineering, cloaking device and all. But it still burns jet fuel. The Amazons are actually trimming their government spending during the on-going Western economic crisis and our Foreign Minister has cut back on all consulates' fuel allocations."

"I still don't understand why I'm carrying you in an aircraft." Kal smiled. Flying under the aircraft, he supported it on his back, balancing it as best he could with his arms and legs. Fortunately Chloe was a good pilot and assisted by keeping the plane's flaps, ailerons and other control surfaces trimmed correctly.

"Would you believe all the cars were taken?" She asked.

"If you say so." Kal mused. "I guess office politics is different for Amazons than for the rest of us."

"You can say that again." Chloe groaned.

Kal carried the Amazon aircraft, and Trinity with it, west from Metropolis toward Smallville. At the moment, it was configured as a small executive jet. It could easily reconfigure into a cargo plane, a fighter jet, or utility helicopter. "Hold on for a moment. I need to check in with Steel and the Metropolis Special Crimes Unit. I'm supposed to see Jason this evening, and I've got to make sure that they're still able to cover for me the whole time."

-0-

As Kal sped Trinity and the Amazon jet west across New Jersey and Pennsylvania, crossing farmland, cities and forests, clear skies began to give way to clouds. On the aircraft's small flight deck, Chloe pulled back on the control yoke and the plane began to climb. Feeling the airframe begin to rise from his back, Kal increased his altitude.

He and Chloe skillfully maneuvered to fly over a series of storm clouds.

CRACK! A bolt of lightning reached up and struck the jet. The combination of heat, charge and raw force made the plane wobble in Kal's control. For a moment, he and Trinity were in free fall. Trinity! He switched his throat-mic back to Chloe's channel, "Are you okay?" Man sometimes I wish I had Jonn's mental powers or that I could just phase thru solid objects like he and Wally can. Then I could check Chloe's vitals. Calm down Clark. Think.

Listen.

Two heartbeats caught his ear. One normal, but slow and very close by. The other panicked and falling fast. "Trinity, wake up!" Kal smacked the side of the aircraft and it rang like a gong.

"Hey! What's going on out there?" Trinity called over their wireless link while righting the aircraft.

"Lightning struck us; you lost consciousness for a bit. And someone is falling. I need you to fire up the jet and hover for a few moments, so I can go save who ever that was..." Kal tossed the aircraft gently, like a giant model and darted down toward the falling heartbeat.

"Kal, if you don't have time to talk with me just say so. I don't like feeling wedged into your afternoon." Chloe called.

"You don't want me to let that other person die of fright while falling 15,000 feet to the ground, do you?

"No. Make your save. But, you'll have to find me at flight level thirty or thirty-five because I'm going to get well above these clouds."

Kal made his save quickly. The person was in a car. Falling from altitude. Strange. He flew underneath it and steadied it, guiding it to the ground. He listened to the heart rate and breathing of the person inside to determine that she was okay. Then he immediately soared skyward to find Chloe. It was the kind of anonymous save he would have made in his high school and college days as the Kansas Blur.

-0-0-

Inside the car that Kal had just set down on the ground in Pennsylvania, a young Amazon with strawberry blond-hair stewed silently. _Darnit, Clark! Why did you have to go rushing off without even a good bye? If you don't care enough to talk this out with me, then... Who am I kidding? Did he even say goodbye to his beloved Lois when he took off to Krypton for five years? No. Then why would say goodbye to me before flying off on whatever mission. _

She looked out through rain and saw that she was in a parking area. She saw signs for Roy Rodgers fried chicken and Exxon gas. _A toll road plaza! The nerve of that man! He couldn't even have the common decency to set me down on normal highway! That's it; last straw; I'm done with him. I'll drive back to the Consulate in the city and do some more testing on that scarred, ancient coin._

-0-0-0-

Kal-El soared upward, through pouring rain, gusting winds, slashing lightening and booming thunder. As he topped out over the clouds, the Son of Krypton looked around with telescopic vision and listened intently, searching for the visual cross section of Trinity's Amazon jet and it's unique sound. In about half a minute he located it and then darted across the sky. As he closed into wireless range, he called to her, "Trinity, this is Neo, approaching from south-southeast and below." She confirmed and soon he supported the aircraft. Together they guided it west toward Kansas.

"Okay, let's talk about the white elephant in the room." Kal called.

"What's that? Everything's fine." Trinity responded.

Kal felt sure that Trinity was up set about something, considering what she'd done with the coffee and the things she'd said at dawn this morning. "I'm not talking about the aircraft, or your piloting skills – which, by the way, impress me."

"Don't butter me up, Clark. Flattery will get you nowhere."

"I'm serious, Chloe. Credit where credit is due."

Silence. Kal tried again. "Let's talk about that fight in Lowell County, Kansas, outside the Smallville city limits, where you held off a Bizarro for long enough that Jor-El could possess and empower Lionel Luthor to carry my mother and my son to safety in the old Kowachee Indian caves."

"It was nothing." Chloe said flatly. "Just doing my job as an Amazon Warrior and friend of Martha's." It didn't take Kryptonian senses to hear the tightness in her voice.

"It was not nothing." Kal said with empathy and admiration in his tone. "I saw the road sign sticking up out of the ground like a hatchet and I found you remember."

"How could I forget," Trinity sounded distant as images from that fight flashed through her mind. Moments later she continued "Why was it you who found me, and not anyone else?"

"I was the first one on the scene."

"WHY weren't you there with me when I was fighting that thing? It had your strength and your speed!"

"Chloe," Kal tried to just state the facts without sounding patronizing. , "I was off world slowing down an asteroid that could hit the earth." He wasn't sure he pulled it off

"Clark. Joseph. Kent." Chloe sounded hurt and Kal noticed that she wasn't controlling the flaps and ailerons of the jet as skillfully as she had earlier in the flight. "Don't you dare justify yourself."

"I was answering your question." Kal spoke softly.

"You're dodging the point!" Trinity paused and steeled herself holding back tears. "I could have died! I was scared out off my mind! You were off saving the world and left me alone to fend off something with your strength and speed and powers."

"That's right, Chloe." Kal agreed. He continued attempting to validate her feelings, "You were so strong, and so brave. You did great! You let my mother, her neighbor and my son get to safety."

"I could have died! Amazons aren't exactly immortal, you know? We're just unaging and very sturdy."

"I know."

"Don't tell me you know!" The newest Amazon wracked the control yoke of her craft hard left, attempting to force the airframe into a descending counter clockwise roll. Instead the plane shuddered as Kal struggled to retain control of it. "How could you know what it feels like to be a woman facing something that big and that strong? Are you trivializing my feelings?"

Kal thought back to Jonathan and Martha. He recalled how his dad had helped his mom process her feelings. Validating the feeling without acting threatened or defending himself. Martha felt what she felt. Her feelings were neither an accusation, nor an indictment against Jonathan "You felt fear."

Trinity brought the control yoke back to level flight. "Bloody right I did."

Kal breathed a sigh of relief as the aircraft stopped fighting him and leveled out, "You felt Death touch you again."

"I did."

"I'll be with you next time. Partner. If at all possible, I will be with you."

Chloe muted her end of the conversation.

Kal chose not to listen with super hearing but he could feel the vibrations in the airframe as she breathed and sniffled and silently sobbed. Clearly she was gathering herself.

"Do you love me, Clark?"

Silence. _ Great Scott! The only question worse than does this make me look fat..._

"I'm not asking if you're in love with me or if you're attracted to me. I'm asking, do you love me?"

_Okay that clears it up. And if the truth isn't good enough..._"Chloe, you're more important to me than either of us knows. Yes, Chloe Cassiopeia Sullivan, I love you. I-"

"Ssshhh, Clark. Stop there. I need you. I can't do this superhero thing alone."

"You could."

"I could, but I don't want to. Let's go fix that window at your mom's house."

-0-0-0-0-

After Clark applied some heat vision and superstrength to reshape a standard window to fit the broken one in the upstairs hall, Ben Hubbard came back over and helped install it.

Then Clark, Chloe, and Martha took Jason to see Jonathan's grave. Each paid their respects in their own way. When it was his turn, Clark said, "Hi, Dad. I've been gone for a while. Things changed while I was gone. Even things that I thought couldn't change, changed.

"You have a grandson, Jason. He's right here next to me. We showed the photo albums at the house. The way he'll really get to know you is by hearing us tell your stories, and tell him about how you shaped our lives. My father, Jor-El, may have taught me Kryptonian science and advanced theories of virtue and ethics, but everything I know about being a man, everything I know about being a _hero_, I learned from you, Dad." He squeezed his mom's shoulder gently. "And from you, too, Mom."

At last it was time to pile into sea planes and Amazon jets for the trip back to Metropolis. Some people couldn't file stories from their lap tops or run the Editorial Desk off their smart phones and actually had to attend school in person. Jason would have preferred to ride in his father's arms, or holding onto his shoulders. But Kal still had to hold Trinity's jet and push it back east. Richard's plane would take a lot longer to get to Metropolis than it would take Kal to fly the Amazon jet back there. So, Jason took the co-pilot's seat on the flight deck with his mother's cousin Chloe. All of this meant Jason would get to spend the night with his father. Then Clark would take him to school in the morning. Metropolis, the US and the world made do without Superman for years. They could do without him for a couple of hours in the morning while he got his son off to school.

-V-

The following morning, Clark woke Jason up a bit earlier than he was used to. "Why so early, Father?"

"I've got to give a press conference." Clark knelt down at the edge of his son's bed

Jason's eyes brightened, "You mean you're gonna ask someone questions, like Mommie?"

"No." Clark looked up toward the windows. "You remember the creature that tore up Grandma Kent's farm?"

"Yeah." Jason bolted up straight. "How could I forget? Aunt Chloe came in her Amazon armor and Grandfather Jor-El came too. They saved us!"

"Exactly. Well there were others like it wearing my uniform in Metropolis and other places hurting people. That's why I've been dressing like Neo from the Matrix movies, like I did as the Kansas Blur before I became Superman. People were scared of the creatures and they thought I was one of them when I dressed in the Superman uniform you're used to, so I went back to the old look that no one was afraid of and kept saving people."

The lad sank like a rag doll. "What's that got to do with getting me up early?"

"The authorities proved it wasn't me hurting people and the District Attorney is dropping all the charges against me, because I'm innocent. He wants Superman to appear with him in the red cape and blue uniform on the steps of the court house fifteen minutes before your school starts when he announces all charges dropped."

"Oh. Cool." Jason rolled over and closed his eyes again. But he was smiling. "Can I go back to sleep now?"

"No silly!" Clark tossed a pillow at his son. "You can get up and get ready for school."

-V-V-

The Metropolis District Attorney stood at a podium festooned with microphones. Behind him stood the Mayor, the Chief of Police, the Director of the City Crime Lab, Ron Thorpe and Jimmy Olsen. Before him stood a crowd of reporters and photographers. The DA wrapped up his statement, "The Crime Lab found definitively that it was not Superman who burned two of Metropolis' Finest, nor was it Superman who killed the young mother. The Daily Planet further proved conclusively that that Superman was in fact out of the city at the exact moment these two crimes were committed. It is, therefore my duty to drop the charges against the Son of Krypton. Normally, the first question goes to the Daily Planet, but they're up on the platform with me today. So, I give the first question to the Star."

The camera woman with the Star reporter elbowed him and pointed skyward. The reporter's eyes followed her hand, "Look, up in the Sky!"

Others did what he said and looked. Cat Grant from News 9 Metropolis declared, "It's a bird!"

Anderson Cooper from CNN squinted, "No...it's a plane!"

The Mayor stepped up to the podium and proclaimed, "No. It's Superman!"

Superman descended from the sky with his crimson cape fluttering in the morning breeze. His cerulean blue uniform shown in the sunlight streaming over the spires of the skyscrapers. Even his spit curl looked freshly quaffed. The Man of Tomorrow touched down gently next to the podium and waited for the Mayor to defer to him. Smiling broadly he stepped up to the mic, "I'd like to thank the Special Crimes Unit and hero called Steel who filled my boots while I was gone. I'd like to thank the Daily Planet for never losing faith in me. I'd like to thank my friends and family for standing by me. And I'd like to say what I should have said weeks ago: It's good to be back!"


End file.
